Rebel Wilson says working with Sacha Baron Cohen was the 'worst experience of her career' and it left her feeling 'humiliated and ashamed' as she speaks on the controversy
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Rebel Wilson has admitted working with Sacha Baron Cohen was the 'worst professional experience' of her career, which made her feel 'humiliated'.
The actress, 44, first opened up about her difficult experience with the British actor, 52, in her new memoir Rebel Rising, which has been released in UK with the allegations about Sascha - which he strongly denies - redacted.
Speaking about working with Sacha on the 2016 film Grimsby during An Evening With Rebel Wilson at the London Palladium on Monday evening, Rebel claimed if she was the person she is today she would have left the project.
Fearne Cotton, who hosted the evening with Rebel, touched on the claims she has made about Sacha and asked her: 'Have you healed from it and mentally recovered?'
Rebel explained: 'I mean it was over 10 years ago so I have moved on from it. But it was a bad experience and I felt humiliated and I had a bit of shame surrounding it because I should have left.'
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The Australian star said that if she was as strong as she is today, she would have left the project, but went on to explain why she didn't.
Rebel said: 'I would have left I was the person I am today. But he was a bigger star and we had the same agent so there was a conflict of interest.
'I felt like I had to finish the job and that was what was professional but if I was the person I am today I would have left.'
Revealing why she shared her experience in her memoir, she said: 'I wanted to write the story for if anyone is going through something like that to give them perspective on it if they are feeling shame. It released some of that shame by writing about it.'
It comes after Sacha broke his silence after Rebel's redacted memoir was released in the UK on Thursday last week.
The book was published in the US earlier this month, and features a chapter titled Sacha Baron Cohen And Other A**holes, where Rebel makes claims about Sacha's behaviour during the filming of Grimsby, which he has strongly denied.
However the UK copies feature the wording crudely blacked out due to what Rebel brands 'peculiarities' of English law.
In response to the book's UK release, Sacha's legal team has deemed this decision by publishers HarperCollins a vindication, following the creator's strong denial of Rebel's claims.
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'HarperCollins did not fact check this chapter in the book prior to publication and took the sensible but terribly belated step of deleting Rebel Wilson's defamatory claims once presented with evidence that they were false,' the statement, presented in Deadline, said.
'Printing falsehoods is against the law in the UK and Australia; this is not a ''peculiarity'' as Ms Wilson said, but a legal principle that has existed for many hundreds of years.
'This is a clear victory for Sacha Baron Cohen and confirms what we said from the beginning – that this is demonstrably false.'
After redeacted edition was finally published, publisher HarperCollins confirmed to MailOnline that details had been removed.
They told MailOnline: 'The book contains some redactions in chapter 23 on pages 216, 217, 218 and 221, as well as an explanatory note at the beginning of the chapter.'
After the allegations were detailed in the US version of the book, Sacha's spokesperson said: 'While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence...
'Including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.'
The UK version includes a reference to 'the worst experience of my professional life. An incident that left me feeling bullied, humiliated and compromised...
'It can't be printed here due to the peculiarities of the law in England and Wales.'
The rest of the page is redacted, with black lines also removing shorter details elsewhere in the chapter.
The Bridesmaids star said her aim was not to cancel Sacha with her recollections in the memoir, but to retell an experience which made her feel 'completely disrespected, which led to me treating myself with even more disrespect by eating in an extremely unhealthy way'.
In the UK book, Rebel says she 'rues the day' she met Sacha, who she describes as her 'idol'.
She describes how they first met at a dinner party hosted by Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and a year later he offered her a role in Grimsby, which was released in North America as The Brothers Grimsby.
She played Dawn, the wife of Sacha's character Nobby, a football fan who gets drawn into the world of his secret agent brother.
Last month, she first named Sacha as the celebrity responsible for making threats over the book after which his representatives hit back.
Taking to Instagram to confirm the identity, Rebel wrote: 'I will not be silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The a****** I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.'
In the wake of her statement, Sacha spoke out to TMZ via representatives, saying: 'While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence...
'[With] contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.'
As well as her shock comments about the 'disgusting' sex scene in Grimsby, in an interview with The Australian Women's Weekly at the time, the Pitch Perfect star also slammed her character Dawn wearing a burqa in one scene.
She insisted at the time that the scenes were all in the name of comedy: 'Obviously, I don't mean any offence to Muslims. I asked my Muslim friend 'Do you think this is alright, to tell the joke we're telling?' And she said yeah'.
She added: 'But she's pretty liberal and lives in New York so who knows? But it is a joke and no offence meant'.
Rebel's post came just two days after the Pitch Perfect star alleged that a celebrity she once worked with was threatening her over the release of the memoir.
She detailed: 'I wrote about an a**hole in my book. Now, said a****** is trying to threaten me. He's hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out and you will all know.'
In an Instagram video shared on March 15, Wilson revealed that she has dedicated a chapter in her book to the 'massive a**hole' she worked with in Hollywood.
Rebel will be discussing her book on a UK tour later this month, with appearances in Edinburgh, Manchester and London.
She will speak to comedian and Loose Women star Judi Love in Edinburgh and Manchester on April 24 and 26 respectively, and will speak to broadcaster Fearne Cotton at the London Palladium on April 29.
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